Featured Story of May: The Fool, the Emperor, and the Hanged Man by ianthe_waiting

[everythursday]

“Ten years after the fall of the Dark Lord, Hermione Granger leads a life of self-imposed obscurity, that is, until the day Headmistress Minerva McGonagall is murdered and a certain 'hero' is responsible,” is how ianthe_waiting’s “The Fool, the Emperor, and the Hanged Man” can be summed up in one line, yet readers will find that this fic is much,

Comments

[apkblack1]

The most obvious thing to me, that jumped out at me after reading the epilogue, was there was no way Harry was just going to be so ... so ... normal. No way. No one lives a childhood like that, an adolescence, living with death and facing death and losing every father figure who appears in his life, and then discovering that the central father figure manipulated him so massively throughout ... and is just this normal okay guy and "all is well." Wrong

[ianthe_waiting]

Getting to make Hermione speak... I very much enjoy writing first-person narratives, and FEH was really the first time I managed to pull it off in a somewhat convincing manner. At the time that I was writing FEH, I really used it as an escape from the pressures of thesis writing. So, I think a lot of the process I used was influenced by wanting to be able to speak for and think like someone else. That being said, I really did not want to fall into the cliche of fashioning a post-DH Hermione after myself...what would the fun be in that? I simply began listing Hermione's predominate qualities as illustrated in the books, from that point, I began thinking of all the 'what-ifs.' In this case, the 'what-if' is Harry's insanity. ^_

[apkblack1]

I'm wondering if there aren't more questions just because of the fact that so little of the story is on this site so far. I've seen it referred to by others as a "classic of the ship," so I'm obviously not alone in my adoration of the tale, but maybe not enough folks seeing it here have read enough of it to go on.

But anyway. Back to the questions. The other thing I found satisfying in the tale is how you weren't afraid to kill off so many people (I know, that sounds positively sick LOL). Like there are folks who have almost a grudge against JKR for remorselessly killing off so many beloved people throughout the series, which makes no sense to me, because she was writing about war, and nothing is as arbitrary and remorseless in killing off so many people as war, right? Anyway, you didn't shy away from that at all right from the beginning.

Was there anything that you were going to do that you pulled back from, that you thought was maybe going too far?

[ianthe_waiting]

To be honest, I was surprised JKR did not kill off more of her characters in Book 7. Granted, I was not exactly happy that she killed off a few characters, but it is her book and not mine. ^_^ I have a certain interest in killing off characters, more so in other fics than FEH, which are non-D/Hr

[atalanta84]

Hope I'm not too late to ask questions! :)

First off, congratulations on the feature - it's well deserved. FEH is one my absolute favorite stories in this ship!

So, here are my questions:

1. I adore all of your characterizations in this story, but Harry's was especially a revelation. Not only is he convincingly frightening, you can't help feeling a bit sorry for him, too. What inspired your interpretation of his character?

2. On the same thread, what inspired your characterizations of Draco and Hermione in this story? How do you see their characters getting to the point they're at (Draco as an investigator and Hermione as a recluse), between the end of DH and the beginning of FEH?

3. What led you to incorporate time travel in FEH? Was it tricky to write it, and avoid paradoxes?

4. Last of all, what was your biggest challenge in writing this story, and how did you overcome it?

:D

[ianthe_waiting]

I don't think you're late? And thank you